Fresh Fields Records

Object Details

Place: Austin (Tex.); Maryland -- 1980-2000; Texas -- 20th century; Rockville (Md.)

Topic: Grocery trade; Natural foods; Natural foods industry; Branding (Marketing); Food industry and trade

Biographical / Historical: Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, in 1980, as an early experiment in natural foods grocery stores. During the 1990s, it bought or merged with several other natural foods stores. Fresh Fields launched its first store in May of 1991 in Rockville, Maryland. It did well and expanded rapidly with additional stores opening in 1992 and 1993 eventually expanding to 22 stores nationwide by 1996. That year, it was purchased by Whole Foods Market for $135 million in stock with most of the existing Fresh Fields stores eventually being converted to Whole Foods Markets.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Statistics; Reports; Financial records; Correspondence; Press releases; Magazines (periodicals); Annual reports; Memorandums; Advertisements; Newsletters

Citation: Fresh Fields Records, 1993-2000, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Processing Information: Collection processed by Eric Ross, intern and Andrea Bishop, intern, 2018.

Rights: Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Genre/Form: Statistics -- 20th century; Reports -- 20th century; Financial records -- 20th century; Correspondence -- 20th century; Press releases; Magazines (periodicals) -- 20th century; Annual reports -- 20th century; Memorandums -- 20th century; Advertisements -- 20th century; Newsletters -- 20th century

Scope and Contents: The collection consists of the internal records of the Fresh Fields natural foods supermarket in its first years, before and after the time in which it merged with Whole Foods Market. It includes alphabetized subject files on such topics as advertising strategy, budgeting, promotions, branding, pricing, presentation, launches of new stores, credit card usage, rewards programs, etc.: correspondence; advertisements; memoranda; reports, including annual reports; statistics; financial documents; store magazines; internal company newsletters; press kits and press releases; studies and surveys; and miscellany.

Restrictions: Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.